Unfortunately, the CBC decided it couldn't cover the live broadcast, but it will be recorded for archive. Beyond that, I have no idea what will happen next; I'm talking to a few potential US conductors (both pro and acedemic) for a US premier.

Victor Davies has a website where he self-publishes (http://www.victordavies.com/)... but you raise a good question; I have no idea what if anything he has in distribution. I'll ask him this weekend or later this week.

First, congrats to Chris on an excellent performance. His playing was very enjoyable, beautiful, and unfolded the different characters of the piece in a way that had the audience totally engaged. You could tell he was having fun with this piece and could almost see the smile on his face during the last movement.

The first movement opens with a cadenza where the composer shows that he has some compositional chops. After reading all the reviews posted on TubeNet, I was thinking to myself “Is this what he considers audience friendly?” But this was the only “audience unfriendly” part of the entire concerto. The remainder of the first movement was very nice, and had a “Variations on the Happy Farmer” feel to it.

The second movement is full of some of the most beautiful melodic writing for tuba that I have heard. It is an enchanting song and it’s nice to hear a composer that can write beautiful tuba melodies in the tuba money range. It makes great use of the entire compass of the tuba including wonderful pedal writing. Chris is a very lucky person to get to play music like this.

There is a YouTube clip of the second movement, but it does not do the orchestral arrangement justice. The accompaniment plays a huge roll in making this a very special musical experience. The second movement was my favourite part of the concert (better than the Beethoven).

The third movement also uses the orchestra in ways that I hope translate well to a piano accompaniment, such as a melodic fragment passed from the trumpets, to the horns, to the trombones, and then repeated and expanded upon by the tuba. Everything about the last movement is fun fun fun. The bullfighting sections are light and full of toreador bravado, the latin pieces are fun and enjoyable, and all the different characters of the piece come alive while recaps of the first 2 movements are interweaved to all come crashing through to a thunderous climax and resolution. Since I’m always looking for pieces to program for an audience, my first thought when the third movement was done is “I have got to play that!”

The three movements are different enough in style, character and technique, and each movement stands on its own and could be easily programmed individually for a concert, competition or audition. We as tubists are very lucky to have such an addition to our repertoire and I know I will be buying the music as soon as it is available.

Lastly, I hope that Victor Davies doesn’t mind if I quote his program notes for the piece:

“Three years ago I received an email from Commander (US Navel retired) Chip Sherman. He wrote to ask if I would be willing to compose a concerto for tuba, for his son Jc. That would be great I said. Chip had a very clear idea of what he wanted: accessibility, humour, but also moments of profundity, virtuosity and none of that dissonance stuff. The first movement is a theme and variations, in which the tuba’s many voices are explored as it plays very high, very low, very fast, very slow, as the simple theme melody develops. 'Waltz for Franco' was written when Jc’s first son was born and shows the tuba in a serious lyrical mood. 'Sancho Panza goes to the Bull Fight' finds the tuba into a Latin mood (not often associated with it) as Sancho wends [sic] his way through the streets on the way to the bullfight. It is unclear at the end if he gets into the ring with the bull or not, and, if he survives. You be the Judge! Enjoy.”

Lastly, I did see the stage hand place a microphone between Chris and the conductor before the concerto started, and remove it afterwards, so there is a recording out there somewhere.

Just an FYI for anyone near Cleveland, OH: this work is getting its U.S. Piano Premier next Tuesday, October 12, 2010, at 7pm at Cleveland State University. There'll be some Telemann, Clarke, Saint-Saens and Kreisler too... but this is the centerpiece. Between Chris Lee's and my performances, we now have a "final" version (though I've maintained a couple favorite octave displacements from the first version).

Now if I can only get well in time

I'll be posting You-Tube clips if I don't offend myself

J.c.S.

P.S. I think I read Chris Lee is performing this 3 hours later on the other side of the country.